About the Western Clinicians Network

I hate to tell you all this, but the explorer is still being used in some unnamed dental schools and students are being told this is the best way to detect caries.

Now what about Xylitol gum.  Who is using it and how is it going.  Do you distribute it or just tell them to go out and get it?

I just wanted to get an idea of who is using physicians and/ or auxilliaries to apply fluoride varnish. Any comments?

Along with our Healthy Babies Coordinator, we’re reviewing our strategies with regards to health promotion for pregnant women, with a goal of contributing to the reduction of low birthweights (lbw) in the health region.

Currently we think that investing in reducing well-recognized risks (i.e. smoking) offers a better payoff than mounting a significant health promotion effort about perio and lbw. We are raising the awareness of the links between LBW and perio, but mostly rolling oral health into the overall recommendation that pregnant women attain and maintain general health as part of a healthy pregnancy outcome. This would involve a dental consultation and treatment if indicated. (However, there seems to be some hesitation by private practice dentists in accepting pregnant clients). Our dental public health clinics list low income pregnant women as priority patients and will grant them an appointment as soon as possible.

(We also present information about the transmissibility of caries, but that’s not the topic of this low birthweight program request.)

It’s worth finding if other dental public health programmes have taken a different approach. What does your program do with regards to low birth weights?

Many thanks for helping us reflect upon and future-plan our strategies in Calgary.